Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Please welcome David Tallerman to The Qwillery as part of the 2012 Debut Author Challenge Interviews. Giant Thief, David's debut novel, is out today in the US and Canada. Happy Release Day to David!

TQ: What would you say is your most interesting writing quirk?

David: I don't know if it's a quirk as such, but I don't seem able to stick to any one genre or medium. On top of the novels and short fiction, I've written comics, reviews, poetry and film scripts, and genre-wise I've covered sci-fi and fantasy, horror, crime and what I suppose you'd have to call literary fiction. I've got wide reading tastes, and whatever I like I seem to need to try my hand at.

TQ: Who are some of your favorite writers? Who do you feel has influenced your writing?

David: Favourite writers? Off the top of my head and in no particular order, H. G. Wells, Geoffrey Household, Lewis Carroll, Gene Wolfe, H P Lovecraft, Philip K Dick. Currently, I love Charlie Huston's crime fiction, and just about anything Mike Carey writes. Most recently, I picked up the first of Adrian Tchaikovsky's Shadows of the Apt series as a small thank you for the fantastic blurb he gave me and now I'm hopelessly addicted.

How many of those writers have influenced me, though, I have no idea. I rarely go out of my way to be influenced, and most of the books people have suggested as being similar to Giant Thief - Leiber's Lankhmar stories, for instance - I hadn't actually read at the time. I know I liked the idea of writing a flight-and-chase novel, like Geoffrey Household's Rogue Male. Actually, I drew a lot more from films in the planning stages. Right at the start, I remember thinking a lot about eighties buddy movies, for example ... things like Beverley Hills Cop, where the fast-talking protagonist plays off against the by-the-book straight guy. A lot of that went into Giant Thief's DNA, and then Crown Thief's too, in different ways.

TQ: Are you a plotter or a pantser?

David: Both and either, depending on the circumstances. Giant Thief was written with a beginning, middle and end in mind, and everything else I ... er ... "pantsed." That's more or less how I tend to write short fiction, too. Whereas with Crown Thief, not only had I had a long time to think about where I wanted to take it, I knew I'd only have a year to finish the actual writing (compared with the three or so that Giant Thief took me). so I went in with a detailed chapter plan and more or less stuck to it. With comic scripts, I plan in even more detail than that. Pantsing is fun, but sometimes you just can't afford the blind alleys and days of figuring yourself out of plot holes that tend to come with it.

TQ: What is the most challenging thing for you about writing?

David: At the moment, the lack of time that comes with trying to manage a professional writing career around a full time day job. Book deals are terrific, but if you're the kind of person that needs to occassionally take time out for luxuries like food and sleep, they should come with a health warning.

David: If Easie Damasco had stopped at stealing a giant, he might have got away with it. But he didn't - and now he has an entire army on his tail.

TQ: What inspired you to write Giant Thief?

David: I don't know that anything inspired me to write Giant Thief exactly. It was more that having concentrated on short stories for a couple of years, I reached a point where I felt I was ready to tackle a novel-length project, and when the core idea of Giant Thief came along one night I realised it might just work at that length.

After that, though, what really shaped its direction was a desire to write a fantasy novel that wasn't entirely like anything else I'd come across. I wasn't out to reinvent the wheel, but I thought long and hard about what I did and didn't like in Fantasy and what I liked in other genres - like Crime and Humour - that could be transplanted. On top of that, I'd read a piece by Ursula LeGuin about racial and sexual diversity in her work, and I realised I didn't want to write a fantasy novel that was basically a load of white guys running around a thinly-veiled version of medieval England. Those were the kinds of ideas and questions that inspired Giant Thief into its final shape.

TQ: What sort of research did you do for Giant Thief?

David: I hunted up a lot of photoreference material for myself from a number of different countries, to try and get a better grasp of things like geography, architecture, clothing and weapons ... mostly those first two, because I'm not very well travelled and unfortunately my research budget didn't stretch to a world cruise.

TQ: Who was the easiest character to write and why? Hardest and why?

David: My protagonist (definitely not hero!) big-mouthed, disaster-prone thief Easie Damasco was, all puns aside, the easiest. Once I had his voice down, he more or less wrote himself. The villain of the piece, Moaradrid, was trickier. My favourite bad guys are the ones who believe whole-heartedly that they're not bad guys at all, who are so sure they're right that even the reader starts to wonder. I very much wanted Moaradrid to be like that. He's borderline crazy, he has no qualms about doing whatever it takes to get what he wants ... but he also believes beyond doubt that its both justified and necessary. What I eventually realised is that that kind of certainty means he doesn't often feel the need to justify himself. I stripped out more and more of his dialogue with each redraft. Whether it's setting villages on fire, torture or beheading, his actions are more than capable of doing the talking.

David: My favourite scene is right near the end, so I don't think I can answer that one without giving anything away. Damasco is rarely anything other than obnoxious to his unfortunate companions, stoic, kindhearted giant Saltlick and mayor-turned-resistance-leader Marina Estrada. There's a point in chapter 22, though, halfway up a mountain, where we see - just briefly! - a different side to him. I'm very fond of that scene.

TQ: What's next?

David: Well, Crown Thief is next on the novel front. It's more or less finished now, and due out towards the end of the year, I believe. Meanwhile, I'll be starting book three, currently titled Prince Thief, and trying as best I can to keep the plates spinning on all my other projects. I've a couple of comic and film scripts out there that I'd really like to get moving in 2012. Then there's always short stories coming out, with a few already scheduled that I'm very excited about. It's going to be another busy one!

David Tallerman is the author of around a hundred short stories, as well as comic scripts and poems, countless reviews and articles and at least two novels. Many of these are already available in print, online and in podcast. Others are due to appear over the next few months - including the first of those novels, Giant Thief, to be published through Angry Robot in early 2012 with two sequels following close on its heels.

Not liking to be pinned down, David's work ranges from gruesome horror to comic fantasy, from political science-fiction to tales about mechanically assisted grizzly bears battling Nazi dolphins on the moon.

He's been writing off and on since he was about six, drawing comparisons to Enid Blyton in those early days, but thankfully less so recently. And he's been writing pretty much flat out since around 2005, having realised he enjoys it a lot more than any of the other jobs he's tried his hand at.

Most of his remaining time is eaten up by his regular employment as an itinerant IT Technician, and whatever's left he spends reading books, watching films, hiking, drinking wine and failing miserably to grow bonsai trees.

The photograph was taken near Robin Hood's Bay, which is somewhere behind the camera- person. There are some seals basking off to the left. If you've never seen a seal up close then you should really try to, they're awesomely weird looking creatures.

What: One commenter will win a Mass Market Paperback copy of Giant Thief (Tales of Easie Damasco 1) from The Qwillery.

How: Leave a comment answering the following question:

Who is (are) your favorite bad guy (or guys)?

Please remember - if you don't answer the question your entry will not be counted.

You may receive additional entries by:

1) Being a Follower of The Qwillery.

2) Mentioning the giveaway on Facebook and/or Twitter. Even if you mention the giveaway on both, you will get only one additional entry. You get only one additional entry even if you mention the giveaway on Facebook and/or Twitter multiple times.

3) Mentioning the giveaway on your on blog or website. It must be your own blog or website; not a website that belongs to someone else or a site where giveaways, contests, etc. are posted.

There are a total of 4 entries you may receive: Comment (1 entry), Follower (+1 entry), Facebook and/or Twitter (+ 1 entry), and personal blog/website mention (+1 entry). This is subject to change again in the future for future giveaways.

Please leave links for Facebook, Twitter, or blog/website mentions. In addition please leave a way to contact you.

Who and When: The contest is open to all humans on the planet earth with a mailing address. Contest ends at 11:59pm US Eastern Time on Tuesday, February 7, 2012. Void where prohibited by law. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 years old or older to enter.

Monday, January 30, 2012

Please welcome Myke Cole to The Qwillery as part of the 2012 Debut Author Challenge Interviews. Myke's debut, Control Point (Shadow Ops 1) will be published tomorrow.

TQ: What would you say is your most interesting writing quirk?

Myke: I apply military discipline to my writing process. I have an internal Company Commander (what they call Drill Sergeants in the other services) who never stops screaming at me. When I really think about it's a little crazy. I actually have a voice in my head shouting things like: "Oh, are you tired? Don't feel like working? Well, guess what? Your fans don't care. Your publisher doesn't care. Go ahead, take a break. The market will move on without you!" I actually picture the campaign cover (Smokey-the-Bear hat) and the gritty voice shouting at me. Odd, I know, but it works. While my routine is frequently interrupted, I am always, always, always working.

The guard expects nothing less from me when I'm in uniform, and the reading public expects nothing less from me when I'm out of it.

TQ: Who are some of your favorite writers? Who do you feel has influenced your writing?

Myke: I have to single out Peter V. Brett, who is the single greatest positive force in my writing life (and, frankly, in my personal life too). He's a *stellar* writer, and much of my economical prose styling and tight pacing was learned at his feet. If you haven't read his DEMON CYCLE (THE WARDED MAN and THE DESERT SPEAR), then you must.

Other favorites include Joe Abercromie, Scott Lynch, Richard K. Morgan and China Mieville. With the first two, I really appreciate the dark, gritty realism and incredibly engaging dialogue (Sam Sykes is also one to read in this regard). With Morgan and Mieville, I am swept away by the incredible florid prose styling that is pure liquid poetry. I could never do it myself, but I love reading it. Mieville is the most original writer I've ever encountered. He pushes the SF/F envelope to incredible degrees. Morgan shares a lot with Lynch and Abercrombie in his ability to portray flawed/broken characters and make us love them anyway.

On the nonfiction side, I'd like every artist out there to read Steven Pressfield's "The War of Art." It is, in my opinion, the only self-help book worth the paper it's printed on.

TQ: Are you a plotter or a pantser?

Myke: Plotter extreme. The military is all about planning, so I have that drummed into me. Also, I find when I pants it, I find mistakes 2/3 or 3/4 of the way through the manuscript that have sent unfixable ripples all the way to the beginning, and I wind up having to toss entire manuscripts. My writing process is extremely regimented, with regular pauses to solicit input throughout. Before I write a lick of prose, I have 100-150 pages of bulleted outline completed first. And I only do that after I've done 20-30 pages of "treatment" (rough concept).

TQ: What is the most challenging thing for you about writing?

Myke: The pressure to be perfect. The market has never been less forgiving. I am committed to making a full time living as a writer (hard to do in the best of times), and I am convinced that the key to success in this business is in the quality of your manuscript. There are no prizes for second place, and all the marketing in the world cannot cover up shoddy work. There are SO many incredible writers out there setting the bar ever higher (I have named a few already), and I have to meet or exceed the standard they set or it's back to cubicle hell for me. I worry about whether or not my work is good enough CONSTANTLY. It is the first thing I am thinking of when I wake up in the morning, and it is the last thing on my mind before I go to sleep at night.

TQ: Describe Control Point in 140 characters or less.

Myke: Peter V. Brett already did that in his outstanding blurb - It's Blackhawk Down meets the X-Men. If you want another twitterable description, I'd say "Harry Potter just joined Delta Force."

TQ: What inspired you to write Control Point?

Myke: The military is a fantastic force for good and I love being a part of it. But, like all large bureaucracies, it's intensely conservative, slow to change and more than happy to crush decent people in its efforts to adhere to "proper procedure." While I was working in the Pentagon, I began to wonder how such a culture would handle the existence of magic. What if there were elves wandering the halls of the E-Ring? What if there was a Sorcery Bureau? How would that go?

TQ: What sort of research did you do for Control Point?

Myke: I went to Iraq 3 times. I responded to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. I helped evacuate the Jersey Shore in advance of Hurricane Irene. When you're writing about war, there's no substitute for a front row seat. For everything else, there's google.

TQ: Who was the easiest character to write and why? Hardest and why?

Myke: Oscar Britton (the protagonist) was probably the easiest. He's a soldier, good-hearted and a bit naive. I'm more cynical than he is, and probably less brave/instinctively ethical, but I know his type. I've seen them and worked with them for years.

The hardest was probably Therese Del Aqua (which I suppose some folks will call Britton's "love interest," though I like to think she's a lot more than that). She's a Puerto Rican woman from California who wound up in New York City for a spell. She's had a range of experiences from her earliest days that I was incredibly unfamiliar with. I interviewed several latina women to try to wrap my heard around the cultural/gender distinctions. I really hope I got it right. We'll see what readers have to say about that. On top of that, Therese has a reservoir of compassion that I can only envy. She's been through hell from her childhood, and she hasn't let it touch who she is at her core. She gets angry, but has never let anger take her. That's so far from who I am that I had to constantly check and recheck myself to make sure I was writing her character and not my own.

TQ: Without giving anything away, what is/are your favorite scene(s) in Control Point?

Myke: Oh, wow. That's really hard, because my favorite scenes totally give the book away. Let's just say there's a fight scene that pits a lot of state of the art military hardware against some classical fantasy creatures, and another where the antagonist unleashes the full fury of her magical abilities on a modern military facility. Both are sooooo cool.

TQ: What's next?

Myke: I have another original series fully plotted/outlined with 75 pages of the first book written. I am looking to pitch that to my publisher some time soon. I am also doing some writing for a media tie-in franchise with the hope I can be a regular for them. My real goal is to diversify and write for video games and comic books as well. I'm hoping the media tie-in work can be a step in that direction.

The last thing I'd like to share is a call for your readers to stand with me in the military reserve. I'm not blind to the horrors of war or the problems with the military, but I believe it is ultimately a positive force for social justice, mobility and the common good. If you want to help, it's one of the best ways to do it. And remember, if you (for physical, background, or other reasons) aren't qualified to join the reserve, all branches have auxiliaries that will take you. I can't do it alone.

TQ: Thank you for joining us at The Qwillery.

About Shadow Ops

Control Point

Shadow Ops 1
Ace, January 31, 2012
Mass Market Paperback, 400 pages

Lieutenant Oscar Britton of the Supernatural Operations Corps has been trained to hunt down and take out people possessing magical powers. But when he starts manifesting powers of his own, the SOC revokes Oscar's government agent status to declare him public enemy number one.

Myke Cole is the author of the upcoming military fantasy SHADOW OPS series. The first novel, CONTROL POINT, is coming from Ace (Penguin) in February, 2012. As a secu­rity con­tractor, gov­ern­ment civilian and mil­i­tary officer, Myke Cole’s career has run the gamut from Coun­tert­er­rorism to Cyber War­fare to Fed­eral Law Enforce­ment. He’s done three tours in Iraq and was recalled to serve during the Deep­water Horizon oil spill. All that con­flict can wear a guy out. Thank good­ness for fan­tasy novels, comic books, late night games of Dun­geons and Dragons and lots of angst fueled writing.

Please remember - if you don't answer the question your entry will not be counted.

You may receive additional entries by:

1) Being a Follower of The Qwillery.

2) Mentioning the giveaway on Facebook and/or Twitter. Even if you mention the giveaway on both, you will get only one additional entry. You get only one additional entry even if you mention the giveaway on Facebook and/or Twitter multiple times.

3) Mentioning the giveaway on your on blog or website. It must be your own blog or website; not a website that belongs to someone else or a site where giveaways, contests, etc. are posted.

There are a total of 4 entries you may receive: Comment (1 entry), Follower (+1 entry), Facebook and/or Twitter (+ 1 entry), and personal blog/website mention (+1 entry). This is subject to change again in the future for future giveaways.

Please leave links for Facebook, Twitter, or blog/website mentions. In addition please leave a way to contact you.

Who and When: The contest is open to all humans on the planet earth with a mailing address. Contest ends at 11:59pm US Eastern Time on Monday, February 6, 2012. Void where prohibited by law. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 years old or older to enter.

It's the last Monday in January! January has been incredibly busy here and has flown by. February will be jam-packed as well. The Qwillery is ending January and will start February with a lot of 2012 Debut Author goodness!

Monday - 2012 Debut Author Challenge Interview with Myke Cole. Control Point (Shadow Ops 1) will be published on January 31, 2012. The Control Point cover by Michael Komarck is devastating the competition in the 2012 Debut Author Challenge Cover Wars for January! Go vote.

Tuesday - 2012 Debut Author Challenge Interview with David Tallerman. Giant Thief (Tales of Easie Damasco 1), David's debut, will be published on January 31, 2012.

Wednesday - 2012 Debut Author Challenge Interview with Elisabeth Staab. Elisabeth's debut, King of Darkness (Chronicles of Yavn 1), will be published on February 7, 2012.

Thursday - 2012 Debut Author Challenge Interview with Eowyn Ivey. The Snow Child, Eowyn's debut, will be published on February 1, 2012.

Friday - Guest post by Laura Kaye. In the Service of the King (Vampire Warrior Kings 1), an e-novella, will be published on February 1, 2012. North of Need (Hearts of the Anemoi 1) was published in November 2011.

Sunday - 2012 Debut Author Challenge Guest Post by David Constantine. The Pillars of Hercules, David's debut, will be published in March 2012.

Here's the book list for this week. There are a lot of books to choose from. And to help you shop, you can find a printable PDF of this week's book by clicking here. Click "File" on the left and then "Print (PDF)."

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